


Over My Head

by DollyPop



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: F/M, Growing Up, Pre-Canon, Puberty, Teen Romance, Teen Years, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-06-03 03:35:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6594967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DollyPop/pseuds/DollyPop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“<i>Franken</i>?” she asked, both her golden eyes going wide. "When did you get so <i>tall</i>?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Over My Head

Coming back to the DWMA after Summer Break was always one of the most jarring experiences of Marie’s life. For two, maybe three months, she would go back to Sweden, where the air was clean of sand, where her feet always knew the correct direction and she could tell her little cousins stories of America in her high, lilting Swedish as they all gathered around her. And then, after those few months, she would come back to Nevada, where she was a foreigner first and foremost.

As she walked around Death City, lost again, she couldn’t help but feel out of place. It was almost jarring, the differences between the two lands she called “home”, straddling a line. Though everyone said hello to her here, she still had to remind herself to answer in English.

 Regardless, every August, without fail, she would return to Shibusen, and so, there she was.

Albeit, with little to no clue how to get back to the school where her luggage had been dropped off. She grumbled, swiping her palms over her red skirt and hoping she wouldn’t sweat through her shirt. Nevada was always so much warmer than she anticipated. She groaned when she spotted the flower shop that sported the happy “Death Blooms” sign.

She could have sworn she’d passed by it, last time.

But, then again, she couldn’t remember if that was “Death Blooms” or “The Death Room”, the club on the other side of town.

English was confusing and she was tired and she just wanted to lie down. Grumbling, she decided to take a left as soon as she passed the shop, closing her eyes and sighing. As much as she despised her lack of direction in Death City, a tour guide sure would be nice. . . 

When she stepped forward, she wasn’t expecting to collide with something. Namely, something hard, and she fell back, wobbling on her heels and opening her mouth to apologize. Yet, when she focused forward, all she saw was blue and, in front of the blue, a red covered book that was held open with a hand that could probably hide the entire tome with just the palm.

Her brows furrowed as she looked up, determined to see the face of whoever it was that had rudely been paying too much attention to their novel, she snuck a peak, “Aortal Functions in Large Mammals”, but when she finally cranked her neck back far enough, she was almost jarred out of her Mary Janes.

“ _Franken_?” she asked, both her golden eyes going wide, her face warming. In fact, most of her warmed. Death, she had just bumped into her crush in the middle of the street. Literally. Her nose had collided with his chest and he was looking at her, squinting slightly from behind his glasses because of the sunlight before the recognition came to his face and the slight air of annoyance faded.

“Ah, Marie. You’re bac-“

“When did you get so _tall_?” she blurted out, immediately feeling silly. He blinked from behind his glasses and, she couldn’t be entirely sure, but she could swear she saw some pink dusting under his cheeks.

Though, it was probably sunburn. Since when did Franken Stein blush? And around her, no less?

No, it was definitely the sun.

Or puberty catching up to him.

Death, puberty did him good. . .

Marie coughed, her hand coming up to play with the collar of her shirt as she fidgeted. “I-I mean. . .I just. . .” she laughed nervously, cutting herself off. “I was lost and I just didn’t expect it- I mean you! I didn’t expect you and-“

Lord, couldn’t she just ship herself back to Sweden and get it over with?

But it was _his_ fault! The last time she saw him, he was shorter than her! He was shorter than most of the school! And, suddenly, he was all gangly limbs and broad shoulders and she had to look up at him to see his face and she could remember seeing over the top of his head when she was in flats. Now, she had worn her heeled Mary Janes, one of her favorites and a gift from her father, and he was over a head taller than her.

She could just walk forward and tuck herself under his chin and she’d have to stand on tip-toes to kiss him even if he bent down and—Woah! No! No no no no! That was dangerous thinking and her face was burning and he probably thought she was suffering from heatstroke and she comes all the way back to Nevada to find out that he’d grown over a foot in only a few months? How was that fair?

“. . .right,” Stein said. “I suppose that is. . .why you bumped into me. . .literally?”

Even his smirk had changed. It was less jagged, less angry. It was more. . .was that teasing?

Was he teasing her?

The way the corners of his lips tipped up certainly seemed to hint at it. She leaves for three months, (three!), and suddenly he’s. . .this.

“Yeah. . .yeah, that’s uh. . .that’s why.”

“Because you’re lost.”

“And I wasn’t. . .expecting to see you.”

“So tall?” he completed for her, leaning backward. His back was still straight as ever, but she could tell from the way he was carrying himself now that he would develop some sort of a hunch to make others more comfortable around him. She knew how intimidating the other kids found him, even the other adults.

But not her. She scrunched her mouth over to the side, dropping her arm back down from where it was picking at some thread at her buttons. “Well, you can hardly blame me,” she defended, and his smirk seemed to soften in the way it always did when he was around her, the initial surprise at having been run into calming entirely.

She didn’t know if it was because of her wavelength or because of her, but she would take either or. Her wavelength was a part of her, so she counted that as a victory.

“No,” he said, folding over one of the pages of his book before he shut it, “I suppose it would be illogical to do so.” For a single moment, as she nodded, she thought that was that. And then, he had to grin and look down at her, his glasses glinting. “Almost as illogical as you getting lost.”

Ugh, definitely the same old Franken. She rolled her eyes, smacking him on the arm, though she had to reach up to do so this time. “Oh, shut up! Just tell me where Shibusen is?”

He winced and rubbed at the spot she had slapped, the book dangling almost limply from his fingers. “Opposite direction,” he informed, and Marie immediately whirled around. He sighed, reaching out and tapping her shoulder, jolting her until he pointed in a different direction and she felt her cheeks get even hotter.

_Good going_ , she thought.

She chewed her lip for a moment before she turned back around, looking back up at him and ensuring that her eyes were large and pleading.

He at least got points for not needing to hear her ask him to walk her, though the lazy, smug expression on his face certainly deducted those points almost immediately. He was lucky she loved him, or else the walls would have a new Franken-shaped hole in them.

As they started walking toward the school, he fell a few steps behind, seemingly to stretch, though mostly to observe. It had been a few months since he’d last seen her, though not much had changed. She was even wearing a familiar outfit. Unlike him, she certainly didn’t go through any impromptu growth-spurts that left him feeling sore and achey, or a massive change of wardrobe for the warmer August.

Though, as his eyes skimmed over her from the back, he couldn’t help but wonder. . .had her skirts _always_ flared out so wide?


End file.
